Caracas Chronicles

In a long, fascinating interview with Mario Villegas on N24, MUD-chief Ramón Guillermo Aveledo makes a point that should’ve been plain, but hadn’t quite hit me so forcefully until I heard him enunciate it explicitly.

(Take the slider to 5:34)

Towns with fewer than 100,000 people have been the heart of [Capriles’s] effort, [because] we had been very strong in big cities and weak in those with fewer than 100,000, and we see how he’s growing in towns with fewer than 100,000 people…

Chávez’s must be a nervous laugh, because Capriles has taken the small-town strategy to heart. The guy has been campaigning in places with names like Güigüe, San Genaro de Boconoíto, Cantaura and Aragua de Barcelona. He’s been to 150 towns so far since the primaries, with a heavy emphasis on the smaller places where Chávez used to pile up huge leads and the opposition had been virtually absent.

I’m guessing Capriles is now running on a diet of pure, intravenous cochino frito. (Mmmmmmm…cochino frito…)

Which leaves us here at Caracas Chronicles wondering just one thing…where do we send the consulting bill?